The US-led coalition in Iraq is using white phosphorus munitions in its fight against Daesh, US media reported.
US-Led Coalition Uses White Phosphorus Munitions in Iraq
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160924/1045656704/us-iraq-white-phosphops.html
The US-led coalition in Iraq is using white phosphorus munitions in its fight against the Daesh, US media reported.
"Coalition forces use these rounds with caution and always in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict. When M825A1 rounds are employed, they are done so in areas free of civilians and never against enemy forces," the coalition's public affairs director Col. Joseph Scrocca told The Washington Post, as reported on Friday.
The statement comes in response to the newspaper's inquiry regarding an image, published by the US military-operated Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System, showing coalition troops with M825A1 white phosphorus projectiles.
"The U.S. military takes all reasonable precautions to minimize the risk of incidental injury to non-combatants and damage to civilian structures," he said.
White phosphorus munitions, while not specifically banned by international law, are restricted from use in indiscriminate attacks against civilians by the 1983 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
White phosphorus munitions, while not specifically banned by international law, are restricted from use in indiscriminate attacks against civilians by the 1983 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
White phosphorus ignites on contact with oxygen and causes deep skin burns.
The United States previously admitted to using white phosphorus during the Iraq war in 2004, but denied the weapons were used against civilians. The munitions have also been used by NATO in Afghanistan.
The US forces are reportedly using white phosphorus munitions against ISIL militants in Iraq, despite widespread perception of the weapon as indiscriminate and able to cause horrific injuries to civilians.
US Troops Use White Phosphorus in Iraq to Obscure Kurdish forces
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950703001120
Images posted on a Pentagon-run public affairs website Dvids show a US Army artillery unit firing white phosphorus munitions in Iraq, identified by the Washington Post as M825A1 155mm shells, RT reported.
The M825A1 shells are generally used to create a smokescreen lasting for up to 10 minutes, or make signals and markings for friendly troops. But when used indiscriminately in civilian-populated areas, white phosphorus munitions can cause severe burns.
“Coalition forces use these rounds with caution and always in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict,” Colonel Joseph Scrocca, public affairs director for the US-led coalition, told the newspaper in an emailed statement on Wednesday.
“When M825A1 rounds are employed, they are done so in areas free of civilians and never against enemy forces,” he said, adding that the shells are being used for “screening and signaling” only.
However, on Thursday spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq Air Force Colonel John Dorrian somewhat revised Scrocca’s statement, claiming that the troops take “all reasonable precautions to minimize the risk of incidental injury to non-combatants and damage to civilian structures.”
Dorrian refused to elaborate on whether the US military have used white phosphorus shells against enemy forces, telling the Washington Post that the munitions had been “used generally for the circumstances which I described.”
He added that the image posted on Dvids has allegedly been taken during a US operation to support Kurdish fighters’ advance with artillery fire.
The operation, called Evergreen II, was focused on helping the Kurds secure the Gwer River Bridge, near the Northern Iraqi town of Gwer, and the white phosphorus shells have been deployed to “obscure” Kurdish fighters’ offensive.
Although widely-used by some militaries, the legality of the white phosphorus munitions remains questionable. Many weapons experts and rights groups believe that the weapon is indiscriminate in nature and extremely dangerous for civilians.
Local sources disclosed that the ISIL has increased its execution of Iraqi inmates in the city of Mosul in Nineveh province.
ISIL Ups Execution of Iraqi Jailed Civilians in Mosul
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950703001235
"The number of prisoners in Mosul prison who are arrested on charges of spying for the Iraqi troops, US-led coalition and Peshmerga forces has exceeded 75 in only a four-day period from Tuesday to Friday," an informed source said.
He said that the Iraqi prisoners were shot dead and their dead bodies were not handed over to their families.
The source reiterated that the
ISIL is executing more Iraqi people for the fear of popular revolt.
Earlier on Saturday, the ISIL executed half a dozen civilians in a new brutal method after charging them with spying for the government in the city of Mosul in Nineveh province.
"Six civilians were executed by welding machine with their hands tied up to them in front of other people in order to frighten others in Andolus district of Mosul city," the Arabic-language media quoted a local source as saying.
In late August, the
ISIL executed several civilians by putting them between two trucks with their hands tied up to them; then the trucks moved in opposite directions as ISIL terrorists poured oil on the six and lit them up," a local source said.
The Mosul citizens were burned and maimed before the eyes of other people in a square near Hamam al-Alil square in Mosul city.
The ISIL terrorist group executed over half a dozen Iraqi citizens in Nineveh province
by putting them in iron cages and submerging them in water.
"A sum of 8 Iraqi civilians were arrested in al-Douse district in the center of the city of Mosul on charges of spying for the government and Peshmerga forces and were later submerged in iron cages," a local source said.
The ISIL terrorists recorded the scenes as they were killing the 8 as they were caught in iron cages.
The Iraqi army and volunteer forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) continued to purge the terrorists from the surrounding areas of Al-Baghdadi region and seized back nearly a dozen more villages.
Anbar: Iraqi Army Destroys ISIL's Hell Artillery Near Al-Baghdadi Region, Capture 10 More Villages
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950703001284
"Iraq's joint military forces inflicted heavy losses on the ISIL and only in the past two days they have taken control of 10 more villages to the North of Al-Baghdadi region and destroyed ISIL's heavy artillery forces," an Iraqi security source said.
He said that the villages of al-Vazelieh, al-Qaraf and al-Samaleh were among the newly liberated regions in the Northern part of al-Baghdadi.
On Friday, Iraq's Joint military forces managed to seize back the strategic region of al-Baghdadi after fresh advances against the ISIL.
Al-Baghdadi region on the Northern banks of the Euphrates River is now under the Iraqi forces' control.
Iraq's Joint military forces managed to seize back the strategic region of al-Baghdadi after fresh advances against the ISIL terrorist group.
Anbar Province: Iraqi Army Wins Back Al-Baghdadi Region
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950702000747
Al-Baghdadi region on the Northern banks of the Euphrates River is now under the Iraqi forces' control.
The Iraqi army has made considerable advances in Ramadi, Heet and Haditha regions in Anbar province.
Last Wednesday, the Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters managed to liberate four villages Northwest of al-Baghdadi region from the ISIL control.
“The Iraqi Army’s Seventh Division as well as the police and tribal forces managed to liberate the villages of Ebla, Abu al-Ela, al-Sawer and al-Judafiya in al-Baghdadi region, 90 kilometers West of Ramadi,” Commander of Anbar Liberation Operation General Ali Ibrahim Dboun said in a statement.
“These forces raised the Iraqi flags over a number of buildings in those villages,” he noted.
“The liberation process of the villages came after the killing of 23 ISIL terrorists and the destruction of two booby-trapped vehicles driven by suicide bombers,” the commander concluded.
